Business
LightPath Announces US Defense Department Funding to Qualify Additional Materials as Substitutes for Germanium
- The US Defense Department will finance the qualification of LightPath NRL materials for use in Defense, in addition to its already qualified BD6.ORLANDO, FL
About this update from Lightpath Technologies, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"- The US Defense Department will finance the qualification of LightPath NRL materials for use in Defense, in addition to its already qualified BD6.ORLANDO, FL / ACCESSWIRE / July 25, 2023 / LightPath Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPTH), (\"LightPath\" or the \"Company\"), a leading vertically integrated global manufacturer and integrator of proprietary optical and infrared technologies, announced the US Defense Department (\"DoD\") via the Defense Logistics Agency (\"DLA\") will provide the funding necessary to qualify new LightPath's Black Diamond (\"BD\") chalcogenide glasses as substitute to germanium. These materials will be in addition to its BD6 material that is already fully qualified and field deployed in multiple systems.\"The qualification of additional BD glasses by the DLA represents an important step forward as LightPath Technologies exclusively produces these additional materials. In this case, the government is taking the additional step of using its funds to qualify our products to be included in their systems. This speaks to the value our technologies create, technologies that are the base to our Strategy and turnaround of the company,\" said LightPath Technologies CEO Sam Rubin. \"Additional qualification of BD glasses will expand the potential use cases of our unique materials, leading to new, cutting-edge designs, similar to the example demonstrated by our multi-spectral camera 'Mantis'.\"The DLA's funding will be made in two phases. The first phase of $250,000 is earmarked explicitly for 3 of LightPath's Black Diamond glasses. The second phase is expected to cover the remaining six materials and total approximately $1 million.Mr. Rubin continued, \"This process started last August as multiple stakeholders inside DoD and the industry raised the need for those materials and qualifying them to be used instead of Germanium, and specifically the materials we licensed from NRL in December 2021. We have been in frequent contact with the US DoD on the many uses of BD glass over the last year. The recent restrictions announced by China on germanium are acting as a catalyst in some of those efforts and demonstrating the forward thinking of the DLA and the industry. About 25% of market-wide Germanium use is in optical applications. By providing alternatives, more Germanium will be freed up for other industries such as sem...